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George Schroeder

Ducks’ lesson: Marketing pays

When inspiration struck in Times Square, he phoned home. Not too long later, there was a ginormous portrait of Joey Harrington hanging above Manhattan.

“It was to get attention,” says Ken O’Neil, the Portland businessman who first envisioned a billboard in New York City. “And we got a lot of attention.”

And we bring up the old memory because you might have heard, they’re getting a lot more attention.

The boys from ESPN’s College GameDay are in town for the fourth time in four seasons, ready to crank up the hype for Oregon’s big game with Stanford.

Texas plays Oklahoma on Saturday. Florida plays Alabama. But the biggest billboard in college football has just been erected in a parking lot next to Autzen Stadium.

As we revel in the spotlight, we should remember a time, not so long ago, when Oregon had to do goofy, crazy things to get noticed. And we should recognize that we’re seeing the results.

The marketing paid off.

Don’t misunderstand. Chris Fowler, College GameDay’s quarterback, says “Oregon has to be excellent to be nationally relevant,” and he’s exactly right.

Mike Bellotti won big, and Chip Kelly has the Ducks positioned to win bigger. Oregon has morphed into one of college football’s best programs.

That’s why GameDay chose Eugene this weekend, instead of Tuscaloosa or Dallas. (And here, the Ducks should thank a Pac-10 brother. The big show was headed to the Texas State Fair until UCLA walloped the Longhorns last week.)

Kelly’s No. 4-ranked Ducks are an exciting, intriguing bunch, and a win this Saturday would propel them into the thick of the BCS title conversation.

So it’s about winning, sure. But it’s also about marketing. Like it or not — and many don’t — Oregon got to this point in part through brash, relentless promotional efforts.

Fowler remembers seeing the “Joey Heisman” billboard for the first time.

“It was large, and it looked out of place in that neighborhood,” he says.

Which, if you think about it, pretty much describes what people thought about Oregon, back then, when it came to college football’s accepted order.

The billboard, Fowler remembers, “was kind of a bold statement.”

One of many.

Oregon’s transition into a power goes back to Rich Brooks’ long, hard slog toward respectability. The Independence Bowl was significant, and the 1994 run to the Rose Bowl was immensely important.

But if you’re looking for pivot points, start with Phil Knight’s decision to pour money into the program, sure. And then go directly to the decision, not long afterward, to scrap tradition and go cutting edge.

When the Ducks changed uniforms, and kept changing them, adding colors and designs and creating combinations?

That was a very big deal.

So was the “Joey Heisman” billboard, and so many other promotional efforts. Combined, those efforts signaled Oregon’s intent, whatever it took, to grab recruits’ attention, and to push into the national consciousness.

“It was just to try to promote the Oregon brand,” says Jim Bartko, one of the administrators in on the billboard effort. “It was to get our name out there and make people recognize who we are. ... We didn’t have a 100-year history. We had to be different.”

There was backlash. For some, it wasn’t just “Who are these guys?” It was: “Who do they think they are?”

There was, then and now, a perception that Oregon was trying to buy its way to prosperity. This week, a columnist for the San Jose Mercury News dubbed Oregon “the new evil empire of Pac-10 football,” and suggested the Ducks have quickly taken the place of USC as the league’s villains.

The brash, aggressive marketing — which, have you noticed, hasn’t been quite as aggressive lately? — has always rubbed people the wrong way. And Knight’s role — on a national radio program the other day, Kelly went along with the joke, calling Knight the Ducks’ “owner” — still ruffles feathers.

Was some of the hype off-putting and over the top? Sure, and perhaps Oregon could have and should have gone about some things differently. But what’s undeniable is this:

People know Oregon football.

“No question about it,” Fowler says. “Oregon is now seen as a very national program.”

Fowler, by the way, sees Oregon’s identity as “high-scoring offense and speed.” And also, he says “the uniforms are a factor.”

Marketing is still paying off. Lee Corso donning the Duck’s head, riding off on the Harley? It’s because the Ducks keep winning. But there’s a direct link to ideas like Joey Heisman peering down on passers-by, just off Times Square.

Enjoy College GameDay, and relish what Oregon football has grown into during a very short time span.

But also, thank a Portland businessman for an inspired suggestion.

“It was a collaboration,” O’Neil says, which is correct. He planted the germ of the idea, and many others took it from there, so credit should be spread around for that billboard.